NORTH COTABATO, Philippines - Mamangkas Mamatong was to harvest tilapias last Wednesday in a marsh in Kabacan, North Cotabato using a net, but trapped an eight-foot crocodile that made him panic wildly instead.
Mamatong, a resident of Barangay Kuyapon in Kabacan, decided to ask help from friends to capture the reptile alive after regaining consciousness.
He brought the 80-kilogram crocodile home, which, for two days, drew spectators from everywhere in Kabacan, a booming agricultural town home to mixed Muslim and Christian residents.
“I was to harvest tilapias in my small fish pen and was stunned to see a big crocodile inside. I was so scared and ran away shouting for help. I almost lost consciousness,” he said in Filipino in heavy Maguindanaon accent.
It was the second large crocodile “accidentally” caught in North Cotabato in the past 24 months.
An equally large crocodile was caught by a fisherman at one side of the Liguasan Delta in North Cotabato’s nearby Mlang town, eventually set free by local officials near the spot where it was caught.
Mamatong said he decided to turn over the crocodile last Thursday to officials of the University of Southern Mindanao in Kabacan, which has a veterinary school run by veterinarians who have sufficient knowledge on reptiles.
“I learned it was illegal to keep this kind of reptile without permission from the government so I turned it over to authorities,” he said.
The captured crocodile was brought later to the North Cotabato provincial capitol in Kidapawan City, more than 20 kilometers north of Kabacan.
Roderick Beñez, a reporter of a radio station in Kabacan, said he was so fascinated with the size of the crocodile, which was for him extraordinarily big and heavy.
“Talagang malaki,” he told The STAR.